So what can Silver possibly announce that could effectively level a strong enough response that proves that there’s no place for Sterling’s bullsh*t and blatant racism in today’s NBA? Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski wrote this morning that Sterling’s peers in the owner community and league front office seem to think that Silver has his finger on the NBA’s version of the button.

Several league officials – including owners and Board of Governors members – told Yahoo Sports they believe Silver has been studying the nuclear option on Sterling: a provision in the NBA’s bylaws that would allow Silver to summon a vote of league owners to strip Sterling of his ownership. The NBA would run the Clippers until the team could be sold.

Minimally, Silver could implement these penalties on Sterling: a one-year suspension, a $1 million fine and an assignment to counseling. For all the years former commissioner David Stern let Sterling slide, there’s a strong belief Stern simply feared Sterling in the courts. Sterling is an attorney – he loves litigation – and Stern feared Sterling would become Al Davis to his Pete Rozelle. (Via Yahoo! Sports)

David Stern afraid of someone? Unlikely. That man acted like he had balls made of hornet’s nests. But like Woj, ESPN’s Godfather of NBA Coverage, Bill Simmons, has also heard rumblings of nuclear protocol, which would mean that Silver is definitely bringing the ultimate swag to the podium at 2 PM.

There’s also that whole matter of the audio recordings that reveal what a colossal racist d*ckhead that Sterling is. That’s probably not going to make him any friends in a courtroom, although I’m no legal expert and don’t know how any of that stuff works. Either way, you can watch Silver’s press conference at 2 PM on NBA.com’s live feed, and I’ll be updating accordingly with whatever figurative mushroom stamps he drops on Sterling’s forehead.

UPDATE 5: Donald Sterling is banned for life from any association with the Clippers and the NBA, effective immediately, per Adam “Cojones” Silver. “Mr. Sterling’s views simply have no place in the NBA.”

I would just let the guy’s franchise bleed to death. Sponsors are backing away fast and I can imagine season ticket holders doing the same. Players won’t play for him so free agents won’t come and current players probably won’t re-sign.

Hell. can they declare all of his players free agents after this year? It may be fun to watch him have to offer a max contract to a D league player just to meet the salary floor.

I don’t buy the whole “free agents won’t sign with the Clippers while he’s owner” bit. There’s only 30 teams in the league with minimal roster space and a guy offering millions of dollars. The very top free agents? Eh, probably not. But the 2nd tier and below guys? Let’s put it this way: no one boycotted signing with the Clippers when he refused to rent his property to Hispanics and black people because “they smell”.

I agree with IrishCream, but the other problem with basically giving all players on the Clippers roster the ability to become free agents in July is this: That’s one hell of a severe way to punish long time, and long-suffering, Clippers fans who were just now seeing their team actually playing well enough to contend for a title. I say that as a Lakers fan who, naturally, would enjoy the Clippers returning to the cellar of the league, but not because of this.

Stern had a gigantic ego, but he was also very smart. You can’t win a pissing contest with a crazy person. Silver is going to use this to put his stamp on the league, but he very well could be biting off more than he can chew. It will be fun to watch it play out either way.

Have a feeling we are gonna have another bounty gate type thing with this. Sterling will probably get a year or some kind of fine. Maybe counseling.

At least in the bounty case there was a group of people going above to injure. This is just some moron telling his black(?) girlfriend that he doesnt like her being seen with other blacks. Just dont think the NBA has a case here.

The “legality” of it is the NBA and other sports leagues have established processes for punishing players, coaches and executives for myriad off-court transgressions, ranging from DUIs to talking shite about the officiating. Of course owners have never been held to any standards whatsoever (memo to Burnsy: no, David Stern wasn’t afraid of Donald Sterling, Sterling was just one of his bosses), but associating with/tacitly endorsing Donald Sterling is, at last, an inconvenience for the NBA and his owners. They’ll get rid of him, and perhaps Magic will take over the Clippers and Kareem will end up with the Bucks, and then the league will try to tell you that all this nasty racism is gone for good…

I get what your saying I guess. It’s just that with DUI’s and illegal off field/court stuff there is a legal precident. With the officials there is rules saying you cant talk about them. Is there a rule about being racist in your personal life in sports??

I guess how I look at it is that if you, hypothetically, said something racist at home or a party and someone recorded you saying it, then they gave it to your boss you shouldnt be able to be fired. I dont think you can be fired for that. If you said it at work though, then yes they could have you.

Thats my thoughts on it. And you cant tell me that every player or person associated with the NBA isnt racist, at least a little bit. So yeah, this seems out of bounds by the NBA. You are right about the PR stuff that will be coming out though. That should be a great pile.

Hey, I sympathize with him – my fear of cameras is why I always take the role of the person with all the answers behind the person in front of the podium giving the answers. But he really should have gone through some intensive media training in preparation for being the head of the NBA. Merely from a performance standpoint, he looked and sounded terrible.

So in a week or two when the next NBA player gets charged with a felony, can we expect the same race baiters who turned this into a huge story to come back out from hiding and demand the league do something to clean up their image?